The Need for Granny Pads vs. “Parochial” Land Use Concerns

The amazing things you find when you start cleaning your office!  Here’s a find.  Notre Dame Law Professors Margaret Brinig and Nichole Stelle Garnett wrote a great piece for The Urban Lawyer on what are sometimes called “granny pads,” or more formally, “accessory dwelling units.”  The authors track reform measures enacted in at least 12 states that either enable or mandate authority for such units, thus preventing local building or zoning limitations from restricting landowners to “one unit” per lot.  Additional reforms have occured at some municipal levels.  They point to experiences in California as a cautionary tale, however, suggesting that “local parochialism remains alive and well in American zoning codes, often buried in regulatory details that escape the attention of advocates and academics alike.”

Here’s a link to the full article, “A Room of One’s Own? Accessory Dwelling Unit Reforms and Local Parochialism.”    I’m embarrassed to admit this particular journal issue was on the 2013 level of my cleaning efforts.  Who knows what other gems may be hiding!